1 all public sector organisations employing more than 250 people must collect and publish data using the audit agencies' approved value for money indicators for back office operations with effect from June 2009 for central departments, agencies and NDPBs and by December 2009 for the wider public sector. Benchmarking information from across the public sector should be collected, checked and published on a regular, consistent, auditable and transparent basis in order to drive improved performance;
2 introduce a system of Operational Reviews that examine performance on back office operations, the first of which should take place no later than April 2010;
3 take the estimated £4 billion annual savings in the cost of back office operations into account when determining departmental settlements, taking note of savings already made where appropriate;
4 by the end of 2010-11, and thereafter at least every five years, public sector organisations with more than 1000 employees should conduct a systematic review of their functions, systems and processes to drive simplification and standardisation;
5 accelerate progress in central government shared services by consolidating existing shared back office centres to provide a robust shared services offer to central government (including agencies and NDPBs) . A similar drive towards greater use of shared services should be encouraged across the wider public sector; and
6 enhance COINS functionality where possible to collect data on the cost of back office operations for all central government departments, executive agencies and NDPBs, centrally and seamlessly on a monthly basis as part of forecast outturn, using consistent definitions.